Karate and Kabaddi- empowering women through sports

Yesterday I saw my first women’s Kabaddi game and it was amazing! While on a routine NGO visit we were asked by our co-workers if we wanted to see a Kabbadi practice. We arrived on a dry open field with clouds of dust surrounding a crowd. Young girls and women, dressed in white shalwars kameezes, their scarves tied warrior like across their bodies, ran barefoot hither and thither pulling and wrestling each other to the ground. They passed and parried, danced with the grace of a Capoeira fighter, as they faked and moved in for the attack only to be tackled down into the dusty ground by their opponent. I was immediately fascinated and felt the urge to join them.

For those of you who don’t know what Kabaddi is, it is game commonly played in the rural parts of India and in some way resembles American football but without the ball. There are two teams of ten people and the object of the game is for one player to cross into the opponent’s side and tag them without being tackled to the ground. If tagged or tackled the person is out. The team that is first to eliminate all the players on the opponent’s team is the winner. The most important part of the game is repeating the word “Kabaddi” over and over again when crossing into the opponent’s side to tag them. It is an extremely physical game with players wrestling each other to the ground and it is often played by boys or men. So of course the staff at WLC was inspired to choose Kabaddi as the sport for their annual tournament held on International Women’s Day on March 8^th. Already groups of women from Mahila Mandal groups all over UP are practising for the big day. Elimination rounds are set to start in February and although I will no longer be in India to see the March tournament and I am excited to see an elimination match in Mau (I am secretly hoping they will let me play a little).

(Kabaadi player proudly displays battle scars)

To see women, who usually have their heads covered even in their homes, running around under the hot Indian sun playing Kabaddi and seriously playing it too, was an incredible display of what WLC is doing in India for women’s empowerment. It is a display to the rest of the community and the women themselves, that a women’s role is not confined to her duties at home. Women equally deserve to take part in sports and particularly sports that require strength because women are strong, in every sense of the word.

The idea of helping women become aware of their inner strength was my inspiration to start a Karate class at Tulsi Kunj library for young girls. I sent out a call for girls between the ages of 8-12 who were interested in Karate thinking I might have a small class of ten students. But to my surprise I had over thirty girls from ages 5 to 20 show up, all wanting to learn Karate. We had our first class in the cramped library space learning punches, kicks and spinning bows. Some of them were naturals others clumsy but everyone had a great time. It was inspiring to see the strength and determination on the girl’s faces as they hit the punching bags (a.k.a Tulsi Kunj Gandhi room sitting cushions). It was a great learning experience for me in that it made me aware that something as simple as sports and games, things that requires very little resources, can be used as a tool to empower people.